EU LCS: W1 D1

Guest writer Sam Williamson takes to the keyboard to bring us a daily blow by blow on the Summer Split!

We’re back again and this split, there are positions at the World Championships up for grabs. Fnatic, are gunning for a 4th consecutive LCS title, Gambit are running out a new mid laner having lost their long standing star, Alex Ich. Froggen’s super team Alliance fell short of their expectations last split and are looking to improve on the consistency of their results. SK Gaming after a positive end to the split, controversy aside, they will be chasing further improvement on their spring results. ROCCAT will be chasing another strong start after looking like the favourites last split, their form dropped as the season ran on. Millenium had a rough path to the Summer split; a new mindset is required going into this split. Copenhagen Wolves and Supa Hot Crew are two teams that have had some major roster swaps, and were ready to take to the rift and show they are here to stay. The superweek opened up with five big games, with some surprising results.

GAME 1 – Fnatic vs SK Gaming

The return of the once great El Classico appears to be around. Fnatic had continued to dominate whereas SK dropped off in recent season; but the return form of SK has this game hyped up. Fnatic got off to a strong start with two early kills on the SK mid laner Jesiz, xPeke trying to get the early advantage before Jesiz hit 6 for Kayle’s ultimate. SK responded well to the pressure and slowed the snowball of Fnatic, trading kills for objectives well. The momentum started shift as Fnatic were consistently caught out of position and SK picked up kills and traded well with the defending champions. SK’s dominating team fighting let them force Fnatic into fights they couldn’t win and with superior objective control SK took the first game of the season. Has Fnatic’s grip on EU begun to loosen?

WINNER: SK Gaming

GAME 2 – ROCCAT vs Millenium

MIllenium started the game like a team on a mission invading Roccat’s jungle and shutting down their opponents renowned objective control. Roccat were not going to take this lying down however and began to bully Millenium up mid lane. But after defending the tower successfully, the underdogs regained control of the game effectively negating Roccat top laner Xaxus and jungler Jankos. MIllenium continued to force Roccat into difficult situations, the Polish giants looking like a shadow of the team they were last split. Millenium rotated well, waited to pick off targets with their assassination based team composition. A Baron buffed final push by MIllenium tied up the game and showed a completely dominating game. Might this be the turn around for the team that struggled so much to stay in the LCS?

WINNER: Millenium

GAME 3 – Copenhagen Wolves vs Alliance

Hoping to carry on the momentum of the closing weeks of the spring split and forget their early struggles, but Copenhagen Wolves looked to be a spanner in the works, debuting two new team members. Woolite in the ADC position and Airwaks in the jungle. Early game advantages went over to Copenhagen Wolves with two towers and the first dragon, but the superior CS of Alliance kept the game even. Alliance opened up the game with a first blood onto Woolite, catching him out of position in mid lane. The game looked to be tilting in Alliances favour but a fight at the bottom lane inner turret of Copenhagen Wolves got turned on it’s head by the defending team and they picked up four unanswered kills and they evened out the overall gold. The momentum was in Copenhagen Wolves favour until a mistimed dragon attempt let Alliance pick up three kills and the baron in return for a dragon, a kill and a tower. The Wolves defended the Baron buff well, but were baited into a fight around the objective and got obliterated by Alliance. The buff was once again picked up by Alliance and they pushed hard down mid lane taking the inhibitor. A quick rotation bottom lane sealed the game. A win, but one they had to work very hard for.

WINNER: Alliance

GAME 4 – Millenium vs Supa Hot Crew

Millenium coming off their surprise first win, had one of the weakest teams in last years split in their sights. Supa Hot Crew needed to get this split off to a good start; having just about stayed in the LCS, they dropped their support Migxa, the player who died the most times in any LCS split. For the first time in the split, teams started in the standard lane fashion, setting up for a slow start. Millenium had other plans, going aggressive on SHC mid laner SELFIE and after burning his summoners, Kottenx came back in for the kill. A panicked dragon attempt by SHC let MIllenium continue their domination of the early game allowing Kerp on Ziggs to become a serious threat. Supa Hot Crew tried to take a grasp back of this game but Millenium had other plans and turned the 4 man gank around finishing the trade two for two but leaving SHC on flashing health bars. Millenium controlled this game every step of the way and they dealt calmly with every attempt SHC made to change the pace of the match. A sneaky baron by MIllenium let them take the top inhibitor and turret but a turn around Destiny gank from SELFIE took the buff off Creaton and Kottenx. As the game went on Supa Hot Crews team fight improved with the items builds finishing out, but Kerp was such a monster on Ziggs that each attempt to burst him left the rest of Millenium to take out the rest of SHC. The end of the game was Millenium nearly throwing their lead and letting Supa Hot Crew get a glimpse of victory, but they finally picked up the win at 55 minutes.

WINNER: Millenium

GAME 5 – Gambit vs ROCCAT

This was going to be a hyped up game from the start and it proved to be exactly what we were expecting as fights broke out all over the map at level one. The action continued in the favour of Roccat as they picked up two early kills against Genja and Diamond. The pace of the game had slowed, until an 2v2 engage bottom lane turned into a 4v5 fight with Roccat combining Xaxus’ teleport with Overpow’s teleport and exectued the countergank flawlessly walking away with 4 kills for nothing with an added tower. Before Gambit had a chance to recover, Roccat were up in their face again and took another two kills leaving the score at 0-8 less than 15 minutes into the game. Some over estimation by Xaxus in top gave Gambit one kill back in a game that seemed to be slipping further and further away. It seemed that either Roccat refused to let another game go, or Gambit wasn’t ready for the big stage following the major roster swap but this was far and away the worst Gambit performance. Nothing was working for them and it seemed to be possibly the beginning of the end for a former giant. This game simply became KDA hoarding for Roccat; they played safe and took everything Gambit had bit by bit. The sole plus Gambit can take from this is that Niq didn’t get annihilated with the rest of his team, and it shouldn’t shake his confidence too hard.

Founder of Geek Ireland and proud to be part of an awesome community. I'm a huge fan of online gaming, mainly League of Legends & World of Warcraft. My favourite content to consume en-mass is Sci-Fi like Star Trek and Star Wars. All hail Netflix!